Sound Off: Easing the tension of buying or selling

Published 6:26 pm, Friday, September 27, 2013

Q: How can Realtors help ease the tension of buying or selling a home?

A: Most of us are well aware that the current, competitive real estate market causes both buyers and sellers additional stress. Even in a cooler market, the transaction can be a tension-laden journey. This makes it all the more important for real estate professionals to be as considerate as possible when dealing with the principals, or potential principals, to a sale or purchase.

If a listing agent has set an offer date and time for offers to be submitted, she should honor that commitment to the Realtors presenting offers. Listing agents shouldn't penalize those who make a solid and timely offer by permitting late-comers to submit offers after the deadline has passed.

It's unfair to people whose figures came in on time and made their submission based upon the number of offers anticipated at the set deadline. Their ability to be at their most competitive is compromised by allowing after-the-fact offers to be considered.

Listing pricing should relate reasonably to what the market is doing. If homes are selling approximately 15 to 20 percent above asking, then an asking price of 15 to 20 percent below the home's fair market value is sensible (and not game playing).

Listing agents who routinely establish asking prices 30 to 50 percent below where the house ultimately sells for often do so for their own purposes. They want to be able to tell future sellers, for whose listings they may be competing, that their listings sell for 30, 40 or 50 percent above asking.

Anyone can routinely sell that way if the asking price is consistently set so far below market value. There is no genius or science to this other than serving the listing agent's personal agenda.

Listing agents should make every good faith effort to respond quickly to buyers who have presented offers in a multiple-offer situation. Buyers competing for the home they want are anxious and need to know where they stand as soon as possible.

When the situation permits, where there is a clear "winner," it should be possible to notify the other potential buyers within a short period of time. I recently represented a buyer who had written an amazing offer in a multiple-offer situation.

The prevailing offer was $300,000 higher than the next best offer, all cash, no contingencies. It took the listing agent five hours to let us know that we did not get the house.

When I was a little girl, I was taught the Golden Rule: "Do unto others as you would have done unto you," to which I say, amen.